thread Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account? in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

majpepper — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 21:48:02 GMT

I recently had a customer pay with a gift card and it remembered his loyalty account from his previous purchase. The transaction was enough to empty the gift card so I kept it. Typically we reuse gift cards after they've been emptied. My concern is that if I reissue this gift card in the future, it will still be associated with his loyalty account and the original customer will be earning rewards rather than the new customer.

Is there any way to verify if this is the case?

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

Ron — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 22:38:09 GMT

Yes, it would remember the orginal purchaser.

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

majpepper — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 23:30:25 GMT

Is there anyway to unlink that? I would like to be able to reuse the gift card without that complication.

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

Ron — Sun, 22 Jan 2017 00:28:05 GMT

@majpepper I am not completly sure. Let me try to ket the attention of @Kpay to see if she can help you.

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

Kpay — Sun, 22 Jan 2017 02:59:38 GMT

Hi there @Ron and @majpepper!

We're looking into it - may take us a day or so to get back to you but we'll follow up. Thanks for your patience!

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

Kpay — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 18:24:49 GMT

Hey @majpepper, thanks for hanging in there while we looked into this.

Loyalty rewards are actually tracked by phone number now, not linked to the card. This was part of a recent update, so sorry for the back and forth!

If you reuse the card and put a new balance on it for someone else, as long as the new card owner uses their own phone number for rewards at the end of the sale, the two customers will be separate. Let us know if you have any other questions!

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

majpepper — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 18:36:04 GMT

I've had a few more instances of this. So far, it hasn't prompted them to put their phone number in, it simply automatically applied the stars to their account. How can I be sure that won't happen when the card is reissued?

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

Kpay — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 18:54:02 GMT

If you've activated Loyalty, it should be prompting your customers to enter their phone numbers. Since that isn't happening for you, we'd like to get some more info from you, including some example transactions where this happened (if you remember any).

I've been working with one of our account specialists who knows his way around Loyalty, and he'll be reaching out via email to get some more specifics on your account and to ask a few questions. Thanks again for your patience - we'll get this sorted out.

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

morninglory515 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 18:31:58 GMT

Hi @Kpay, from what I read here, is it true that we should be able to re-sell gift cards to a new cutomer and not have the loyalty stars be awarded to the previous customer? I know that last year, when we tried to re-sell a few cards, they did in fact award stars to the previous customer. That created alot of cunfussion and sorting out. We have a large stock pile of returned gift cards just lying in wait for when we can sell them again without having this issue. Is this truly resolved now? Thanks

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

Spenser — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 18:39:19 GMT

Hi @morninglory515 and @majpepper, thanks for your patience while we looked into this a bit further, I'm happy to clarify.

When a gift card's balance is lowered to $0, this does not disassociate the card from the loyalty customer. However, if you clear the balance of a gift card, it will!

If you intend to reissue gift cards you will need to clear the card balance in the app - even if the balance is $0 - and they can be treated as new gift cards after that. I know it's an extra step, but this also allows customers to reload cards without having to enter their info for loyalty each time they do so. Hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions!

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

morninglory515 — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 18:36:21 GMT

Thank you for this response. That's very helpful. We can now resell dozens of cards.

Thanks again ☕️

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

thewickworks_gb — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 00:46:37 GMT

It looks like Square recently changed the gift card screen and the option to clear the balance is no longer there. How do we clear the balance and reuse the card? Does the balanace now automatically clear and dissassociate from the prior user once the balance hits $0? If someone just wants to know how much they have left on a gift card, how do we check the balanace as that option is missing now too?

Dave

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

lilychiang — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 01:27:43 GMT

Hi @thewickworks_gb, we've combined all the steps in one. Loading, checking balance, and clearing balance all start by swiping your gift card.

If it's a new card, you'll see $0.00 balance at the top and options to add value to the card.

If it's an existing card with a balance, you'll see the balance at the top. From there, you have the option to add more value to the card or to clear the balance from the card.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

thewickworks_gb — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 22:26:09 GMT

So in the past you could re-use the cards by clearing the balance. Once the card has a zero balance does it clear the customer ifo from the card? Can we re-use them with another customer? Or, is it still tied to their phone number, email, etc.?

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

lilychiang — Sat, 11 Nov 2017 00:09:23 GMT

@thewickworks_gb, you have to reset the card by clearing the balance.

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

thewickworks_gb — Sat, 11 Nov 2017 00:47:25 GMT

@lilychiang that creates a problem because if a customer uses up their entire gift card balance on a transaction, the balance on the card is $0.00 but there is no Clear Balance button on the screen for $0.00 cards. How can we clear the balance to remove that customer's info if there is no Clear Balance button?

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

mitu315 — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 16:37:56 GMT

yeah, how do we clear the balance now? as there is no such button. Thanks

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

katieand — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 23:43:08 GMT

Hi @mitu315 -There should be a Clear Balance option you can press according to these Gift Card FAQs that include how to clear the balance. If you don't see this can you include a screenshot or photo of your gift card (be sure to blur out any personal information)?

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

mitu315 — Sun, 24 Dec 2017 18:50:41 GMT

Hi,

Please see the photo. I used to have a "clear balance" button here, but now it just disappeared since last update.

Please let me know where I can clear the balance?

Thanks

Re: Gift Card permanently linked to loyalty account?

Kpay — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 19:01:39 GMT

@mitu315, thanks for the photo. I'm going to reach out to the team internally to confirm how resetting the card should work. Thank you for your patience while I look into this.